Product Description

This delightfully fun and lighthearted comedy is based on the story that inspired the hit movie CLUELESS! Dazzling Gwyneth Paltrow (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) shines as EMMA, a mischievous young beauty who sets up her single friends. Funny thing is ... she's not very good at it! So when Emma tries to find a man for Harriet (Toni Collette -- THE SIXTH SENSE, ABOUT A BOY), she makes a hilariously tangled mess of everyone's lives. You'll enjoy all the comic confusion ... until Emma herself falls in love, finally freeing everyone from her outrageously misguided attempts at matchmaking.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #915 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-01-05
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com
Most people didn't mind Gwyneth Paltrow's English accent in this charming, 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel (which also inspired Clueless). But even if it doesn't sound quite right to you, there are plenty of authentic and wonderful Brit thespians in this film by screenwriter-turned-director Douglas McGrath (co-author of Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway), including Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeply), Alan Cumming (Buddy), Phyllida Law (Much Ado About Nothing), Ewan McGregor (the Scots star of Trainspotting), and Sophie Thompson, outstanding and finally heartbreaking as the chattering Miss Bates. Paltrow plays Austen's benign busybody, Emma Woodhouse--so busy trying to arrange the lives of others that she is sidestepping her own. McGrath brings a kind of pretty and light touch to the production, his best move the wise delegation of creative authority to the actors themselves. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Better version
I have seen two versions of this Jane Austen novel. I find the choice of actors much better in this version.

Cute!
If you are fond of this kind of film you should like it. It's a cute little romance. Not serious but very light hearted and somewhat comical. I probably would have given it 4 or 5 stars if the cinematography and directing had been better. I also think the casting was a little blah, with the exception of Gwyneth Paltrow and Alan Cumming.
Paltrow nailed it! I'm not a huge fan of hers but she played the complicated Emma perfectly. Well meaning but trouble making, sweet but spoiled, generous but snobbish. She really made the character charming and believable. Alan Cumming was great to, but when is he not?
I defiantly recommend you give it a shot. It's not a movie you could watch over and over again, but at least once.

Good
you'll like this version. totally worth checking out. and then watch CLUELESS right after. you'll enjoy the mirror image better.